New assistant brings ‘great football mind’ to Pack coaching staff

John Wristen described his newest assistant coach as “a great football mind” and “a great strategist of the game.”

One glance at Dave Borbely’s resume and it’s easy to assume just that.

Penn, Rice, Temple, Tulane, Stanford, Notre Dame and Virginia are just some of the stops on his coaching journey.

After spending the last four years at Louisville, Borbely is bringing his experience as an offensive line coach to Colorado State University-Pueblo.

“It’s purely coincidental,” Borbely joked about coaching at some of the more high-end institutions of higher learning. “I think it’s more about going with the guy you’re working with goes. Like Ty Willingham (Notre Dame) and Denny Green (Stanford).”

When Charlie Strong left Louisville earlier this spring to take the head football coach job at the University of Texas, Borbely was one of the Cardinals assistant coaches who wasn’t asked to go along.

“It stung a little, but I’ve been around long enough to know how it works,” Borbely said. “It happens every year. When guys change jobs, others might not be a good fit, for whatever reason. So I just regrouped and figured out what my next move was going to be.”

That move took Borbely to Canada and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers — for all of nine days.

“I was up there for meetings and I was flying home. That’s when I first talked to John,” Borbely said. “He told me about the job and I asked him for the weekend to decide. I have three grown kids who live in Colorado, so that made it a pretty easy decision.”

He said Blue Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea was understanding.

“I am sure they wanted me to stay longer than nine days, but they were OK,” he said.

Wristen and Borbely coached together on Gary Barnett’s staff at Colorado.

“It’s amazing that he’s coming to coach with us,” Wristen said. “I feel fortunate that he’s going to be able to share so much with our guys and our staff.”

Borbely, 55, said coaching is coaching, whether in 13 bowl games or at the Neta & Eddie DeRose ThunderBowl.

“Guys still want to know how you can help them get better. And you always want to get better as a coach,” he said.

“I haven’t coached with John for eight years but I believe I’m a better coach now than I was then. And I hope that in eight years, I can say the same thing.”

Borbely said he stresses technique and fundamentals, not just for individuals, but as an entire unit.

“You want everyone in the room to get better,” he said.

One item not on Borbely’s resume is that he has coached nearly 30 offensive linemen who went on to play in the NFL.

“I’ve been lucky enough to have coached a lot of good players on a lot of successful teams, so I think that’s a big part of it,” he said.